CPAC Welcomes Pederasty Advocate

It was announced this weekend that Milo Yiannopoulos will keynote the Conservative Political Action Conference opening this week in DC. Now, a video has emerged of Milo defending sex between adolescents and older men. From the transcript:

MILO: The law is probably about right, that’s probably roughly the right age. I think it’s probably about okay, but there are certainly people who are capable of giving consent at a younger age, I certainly consider myself to be one of them, people who are sexually active younger. I think it particularly happens in the gay world by the way. In many cases actually those relationships with older men…This is one reason I hate the left. This stupid one size fits all policing of culture. (People speak over each other). This sort of arbitrary and oppressive idea of consent, which totally destroys you know understanding that many of us have. The complexities and subtleties and complicated nature of many relationships. You know, people are messy and complex. In the homosexual world particularly. Some of those relationships between younger boys and older men, the sort of coming of age relationships, the relationships in which those older men help those young boys to discover who they are, and give them security and safety and provide them with love and a reliable and sort of a rock where they can’t speak to their parents. Some of those relationships are the most –

Milo, who is Catholic, then credits the Catholic priest who molested him for teaching him how to perform oral sex skillfully. One of the people in the group says to Milo: “You are advocating for cross generational relationships here, can [you] be honest about that?” He replies

Yeah, I don’t mind admitting that. I think particularly in the gay world and outside the Catholic church, if that’s where some of you want to go with this, I think in the gay world, some of the most important, enriching and incredibly life affirming, important shaping relationships very often between younger boys and older men, they can be hugely positive experiences for those young boys they can even save those young boys, from desolation, from suicide (people talk over each other)… providing they’re consensual.

Molesting 13 year old boys can save them from suicide? Yes, says the CPAC keynoter, in a line sure to delight the hearts of NAMBLA members.

Milo has responded forcefully on his Facebook page. He points out, among other things, that he does not defend sex with pre-pubescent children. Well, okay, but how, exactly, does it make acceptable defending what is, legally speaking, the rape of teenage boys?

This is unconscionable. CPAC deserves to be radioactive after this. Run, don’t walk, away from these scumbags. This is true:

Milo-to-CPAC demonstrates how thoroughly the pretense that conservatism is about socially conservative morality has been abandoned.

Look, I fully defend the right of Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on college campuses without being threatened by violence. But that is a very different thing from defending what he says, or his personal integrity.

Religious and social conservatives had better wake up and realize that there is no room for us in movement conservatism — at least not if our principles and self-respect matter to us.

A man who praised gay sex between adults and adolescents is the keynote speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the highest-profile meeting of movement conservatives. Why? Because he makes liberals mad.

This scandal shows why it is more important than ever for conservatives to get straight in their minds that conservatism is not mere anti-liberalism. Matt Schlapp and the American Conservative Union have forgotten this. Don’t you make that mistake. Defending pederasty is a stain that will not come out.

UPDATE:So now CPAC has disinvited him. That’s the right thing to do, but I don’t think they will be able to easily shake off the stink of having invited him in the first place. Why, exactly, would young conservative men and women of vision, character, and intellect want to go to an event like that?

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140 Responses to CPAC Welcomes Pederasty Advocate

Having read Ludo’s helpful commentary (which gives me more background on Milo than I had before) I’m going to say, yea, he deserved to be disinvited. And to be censured for his comments, which were well beyond the pale.

I recall in high school girls about 13 who made Kelly Bundy from Married … with Children look like a nun. About 13 was marrying age for most of history (in 1140AD 14 for boys, 12 for girls with a Priest after the consummation). Once they could breed, they would. Puberty was the determining factor.

I should note that neither CPAC nor UC Berkeley have a first amendment obligation to give Milo, or anyone else, a platform. Berkeley may be a public institution, but the administration thereof still has a right to control access to its lecture halls.

This whole thing does point up how screwy the morality of the media is. Importing millions of men from Mexico, where the age of consent is 12? No problem. Doctors chopping off the breasts of teenage girls who think they’re boys? Love wins! But a molested gay guy unadmirably and irreverently refusing to playing the victim role? Beyond the pale! No book deal for him! We’re going to need something stronger than the Ben-Op to get away from morally unserious folks like this.

“I am a gay man, and a child abuse victim. I would like to restate my utter disgust at adults who sexually abuse minors. I am horrified by pedophilia and I have devoted large portions of my career as a journalist to exposing child abusers. I’ve outed three of them, in fact — three more than most of my critics. And I’ve repeatedly expressed disgust at pedophilia in my feature and opinion writing. My professional record is very clear. But I do understand that these videos, even though some of them are edited deceptively, paint a different picture. I’m partly to blame. My own experiences as a victim led me to believe I could say anything I wanted to on this subject, no matter how outrageous. But I understand that my usual blend of British sarcasm, provocation and gallows humor might have come across as flippancy, a lack of care for other victims or, worse, “advocacy.” I deeply regret that. People deal with things from their past in different ways. As to some of the specific claims being made, sometimes things tumble out of your mouth on these long, late-night live-streams, when everyone is spit-balling, that are incompletely expressed or not what you intended. Nonetheless, I’ve reviewed the tapes that appeared last night in their proper full context and I don’t believe they say what is being reported. I do not advocate for illegal behavior. I explicitly say on the tapes that I think the current age of consent is “about right.” I do not believe sex with 13-year-olds is okay. When I mentioned the number 13, I was talking about the age I lost my own virginity. I shouldn’t have used the word “boy” — which gay men often do to describe young men of consenting age — instead of “young man.” That was an error. I am certainly guilty of imprecise language, which I regret. Anyone who suggests I turn a blind eye to illegal activity or to the abuse of minors is unequivocally wrong. I am implacably opposed to the normalization of pedophilia and I will continue to report and speak accordingly.”

Per the Washington Post, Simon and Schuster has withdrawn Milo’s book deal. The lesson for future right wing trolls: hating on liberals, Jews, immigrants, trans folk and women is edgy, provocative, and book-deal worthy, but advocating for man-boy love is one offensive step too far.

Well, at least he was brought down by his own words. I wonder if he’ll learn any lessons? Given the political atmosphere these days, I was half expecting a false accusation along these very same lines to be launched Milo’s way, because if there’s anything worse than being called a Nazi…

CPAC is a private advocacy organization so it can ban anyone it does not want to associate with.

A university is an institution set up for learning so exposing students to different points of view, no matter how offensive, goes with the territory.

Colleges and universities which decline to offer their students the opportunity to listen to those with appointing points of view don’t deserve to be recognized as colleges and universities.

If Milo wants to defend the practice of some creepy fifty -year old man or woman “getting it on with” 16 yr old girl or boy, the university should let him, provided they also invite someone who opposes that practice.

CPAC, however, is an advocacy group so it can restrict who shows up to speak.

Skip,

I am a gay male and oppose adult-on-minor sex whether it is between members of the same or the opposite sex. I can accept the typical exceptions if they involve lovers who are close-in-age (usually a one or two-year age disparity).

And yet, Donald Trump, a man every bit as morally debauched, will be headlining the event. A man who made his fortune promoting corruption, sin, and greed to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

The Republicans have become the party of Rome. Next up, the lions. I find it ironic that Mr. Dreher started the Benedict Option meme as an idea of a sort of refuge for conservatives who were beginning to feel that liberals ascendancy was going to impose unacceptable moral burdens on them with respect to sexuality and abortion. Now it turns out to be your fellow “conservatives” leadeing the way to perdition, and you might find yourself joined in your refugia by ethical leftists who you would have never expected. Though I expect you will still be arguing over those issues.

All I know is that all this craziness has made me read up on Alabama and Florida law on child sex crimes to better understand how I can protect my child and how I can prosecute those that might think about hurting him. Perhaps I am paranoid but it is better to be paranoid than sorry.

So, what’s going to happen in a Ben-Op school with its classical curriculum? Hysterics when Plato and Virgil are found to be part of the curriculum because passages in their writing appear to have “praised gay sex between adults and adolescents”?

And if those Ben-Op kids get a glimpse of a Caravaggio… read a novel by Thomas Mann or a poem by Friedrich Holderlin… oh dear.

[NFR: Already talked about it with them. Classical Christian education isn’t what you apparently think it is. Next! — RD]

Does no one remember the Bryan Singer lawsuit brought against him by men claiming he and his friends molested and raped them when they were teenage aspiring actors? Corey Feldman ring a bell? Milo is right about the gay subculture and its links to pedo behavior.

“A university is an institution set up for learning so exposing students to different points of view, no matter how offensive, goes with the territory.

Colleges and universities which decline to offer their students the opportunity to listen to those with appointing points of view don’t deserve to be recognized as colleges and universitiues.”

This is absurd on its face. Kyrie Erving of the Cleveland Cavaliers has some interesting views on the flat earth and the establishment who is hiding the truth about it from us. I don’t think Ohio State University is under any obligation to invite him to propagate it.

“Well of course. What is logically sacrosanct about 18? We’ve all grown up being told by boomers that kids are going to have sex anyway. This is inevitably the road we will go down if we can’t even find anything sacrosanct about marriage. Its all part of the sexual liberation movement.

This is a coordinated hit job meant to take down Milo because he is an effective Trump defender and opponent of the cultural Left. SHAME ON YOU FOR PARTICIPATING.

And for those who object to Milo’s homosexuality, might I remind you of the Christian prohibition against BEARING FALSE WITNESS against others, which is the substance of this gross misrepresentation of his comments. To anyone with brains and honesty, his explanation makes perfectly clear that his words never contained the meaning that is being alleged by the Alinskyite Left and the professional losers of the #NeverTrump Establishment GOP.

It’s a hell of a lot easier to defend Milo, than to defend so-called Christian conservatives who drape their small-minded cowardice in the majesty of Western Civilization’s great religious texts.

[NFR: Shorter Aaron Solomon: ‘The defense of pederasty in the cause of pissing off liberals is no vice.’ — RD]

In an ideal world Milo would “have to go back”, but he does a great job jamming everyone’s signals.
He claims some form of conservatism while letting the cat out of the bag on the LGBTQWERTY issue, which most people, including rightists like our esteemed host, sheepishly tolerate for the most part.
Newsflash that log cabin republicans and that queer cousin or coworker are simply better at hiding their perversity. This is especially hilarious after his Bill Maher bit.

Does no one remember the Bryan Singer lawsuit brought against him by men claiming he and his friends molested and raped them when they were teenage aspiring actors?

Of course what went unmentioned at the time was that Bryan was married, to a woman, and the story came out just before the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, in an evident attempt to blackmail him at a moment when his name was back in the news.

Milo is right about the gay subculture and its links to pedo behavior.

If we’re talking about movie people, I can tell you more than a few stories about straight white men, starting with Howard Hughes, Daryl Zanuck and Cecil B. Demille.

Of course these stories have a pedigree going back to Fatty Arbuckle, and are just as reliable as they were in that case. People persecute Hollywood people for what they hate in themselves.

The conservative argument is that the liberals are tearing down the walls of morality and arguing that anything goes. But in this case, it’s the liberals who are arguing that it’s not ok for adults to have sex with children, while the conservatives like Milo say it’s ok. Erudite points out this contradiction, that at one time 12 year olds were considered competent to consent to marriage, while now most people, and especially liberals, consider this to be a ridiculous idea.
Age of consent laws recently have started including a “Romeo and Juliet” exception. A couple which includes a girl just under the age of consent, and a boy just over the age of consent, is different from a couple that includes a 15 year old girl and a 45 year old man. The law recognizes this difference in many states.

I listened to the unedited videos for full quotation and context, and there is little real basis for this controversy. Everyone is piling on for their own reasons, and Rod’s, I think, is transparent. The inescapable tenet of Ben OP is retreat, diametrically opposed to Milo’s, which is to charge. Its normal to resent the man in the arena, but I might suggest some circumspection for one reason: to communicate with a culture of death means to adorn yourself in its trappings. I think Rod knows this, I think there’s truth to it, I think it inveighs on behalf of the Ben Op. But the conservative’s glee in Milo’s downfall puts a bitter taste in my mouth. A gay, self-professed degenerate sincerely arguing that “Catholics are right about everything” will wake a college student out of his dogmatic slumber in a way the Ben Op never could. I won’t pile on a broken human being who, however vulgarly, spent himself in service of a worthy cause.

Sex with so-called teenagers is not “pedophilia,” sexual attraction to teenagers is not a psychological disorder, and from time immemorial until about ten minutes ago every civilized society on the planet codified basic human biology into its laws and customs by allowing their members to engage in consensual sexual relations, and even to marry, as soon as they reached the normal age of puberty (between 12 and 14). The historical and cultural illiteracy of U.S. Americans never ceases to astound me.

Yes, non-marital sexual relations, and homosexual acts in particular, are gravely immoral. But the sheer fact that something is legally defined as “rape” does not mean it is *actual* rape. I thought conservatives knew the difference between natural and positive law. In the United States, the age of consent in most states is 16. You mean to tell me that a 14 year-old cannot possibly consent to have sex with a 20 or 30 year-old, but when he turns 16 just two years later, he magically gains the ability to consent to have sex with a 40 or 50 year-old? You mean to tell me that a 16 year-old who has sex with a 30 year-old in Georgia is a consenting sinner, but if he has sex the very next day with that same person across the border in Florida (where the age of consent is 18) he’s an *actual* “rape victim”? Give me a freaking break.

Call out Milo’s homosexualist immorality for what it is, but making him out to be an advocate for “rape” or “child abuse” is just intellectually dishonest.

Annek,
I think forced marriages are one thing, but the laws regarding teen marriages, at least the ones I’m familiar with were originally intended to allow a young pregnant girl to marry with her parents and a judges consent. To save her from scandal and ” give the child a name. ”
That sounds archaic now but it reflects how seriously unwed pregnancies were taken.
We knew a couple who was married this way back in the late 1970s. The bride was 13. That’s the youngest age I’ve heard of but I knew several other girls who married at 16.
You know, it’s not the ideal way to begin a marriage but I find it odd that if even younger children can identify themselves as another gender and consequently receive hormones, life changing surgeries, etc, why should we not allow a teen mother to choose to raise her child in wedlock and a stable home?
The teen couple we knew did just fine because their families gave them the support they needed. Is it better to force a teen mom to raise a child by herself?

Re: Call out Milo’s homosexualist immorality for what it is, but making him out to be an advocate for “rape” or “child abuse” is just intellectually dishonest.

Sex with post-pubescent teenagers may not be “pedophilia” but a 30 year old who seduces a 15 year old (whether girl or boy) into bed has done done something notably more wicked than if s/he had seduced someone of the same age. The age of majority may be a bit arbitrary, but the reason we make such a distinction is not arbitrary.

The writer of that hit piece used to be a (Conservative!) figure in the Milwaukee media including as a talk show host. She herself was brought down by some personal problems and related ethical concerns. Small world.

I have no sympathy for Milo and I do not think CPAC should invite him to deliver a speech. But I also detest the hypocrisy and Pharisaism. Attacking him using a handful of unreflected opinions and out-of-context statements is an act almost as vile as the sins falsely imputed to him. If this grotesque episode served anything, it was to further illustrate the lack of decency of liberalism and the lack of courage of conservatism. Nobody agrees to discuss ideas with Milo because he represents everything they abhor. Everyone is looking for anything that can be used to deny him a voice. Yesterday was white supremacy, today is pedophilia, and tomorrow will invent some other sin even worse. McCarthy smiles in hell: the liberals vindicated him at last.

Added bit of irony: These videos have been online since what, last year? It only took a bit of digging for ACU to find them.

In all the editorials calling for Milo to be banned and protests and violence that followed his college tour, I never saw this issue brought up by those on the left who wanted him silenced. They were exclusively concerned about his statements on immigration, third-wave feminism, Islamism, and trans issues. I guess the hierarchy of victims these days doesn’t include adolescent teenage boys?

Re: Skip’s right. Sex is a pat on the back or a warm handshake in that culture.

Only for some people: those who are fairly young and good-looking; or rich if not.
As always the 80/20 rule applies to these sorts of things (also to straight hookup culture): 20% of the people are having 80% of the sex.

This Milo character is obviously a Trojan Horse sent to undermine the conservative cause. Any idiot can see that. But I guess conservatives are either too stupid or too blinded by their hatred of liberals to see it. No worries, seeing movement conservatism crash and burn upon their hypocrisies should be amusing.

@benH
“Skip says:
If you ask a gay man for an honest answer, I have found that almost 100% of them are totally fine with post-puberty boys sleeping with adult men as long as it isn’t forcible rape.”

Skip’s right. Sex is a pat on the back or a warm handshake in that culture.

I would ask how you KNOW that?

(Full disclosure, I have been in close proximity to the “gay culture”, the “polyamorous culture” as well as the “fetish culture”…

And in MY long term/ deep understanding of that “culture”, the General view is a LOT more nuanced than you present.

Yea, there ARE chicken Hawks… Guys who consistently date guys between 16 and 20….and YES, it is more acceptable amongst the gay community currently.

However, since I have been friends with them for years and have probed at their proclivities (one of my BFFs, who was in HS with my elder sisters, and was my wife’s live in Nanny for 5yrs)

(Again disclosure, I am neither a psychologist nor social worker…. But I have LONG had an interest in psychology B and the way the mind works….. And I have read a LOT on the subject….hey it’s interesting)

But I digress

This gentleman, who came of age in the late 80s, always saw HIMSELF in those younger men…a young man, questioning his sexuality, with LITTLE to no support…..from the culture or his family…. And he wanted to GIVE them the support.

When we had this discussion, back in the mid Aughts, I told him (and he agreed) that it was getting kinda creepy….a 20yr old having a relationship, sexual or not, with a 15/16/17/18 yr old is (imho) concerning, but not NECESSARILY a deal breaker….a 25 with a 17-19/20 yr old….. Kinda normal….

40yr old with a 16/17 yr old….. yeagh, getting into the creepy/dangerous area….

Again, I digress….

Most Gays I Know (including the chicken hawk) have a (admittedly, somewhat nebulous) upper and lower age limit…. At least the ones that are out/proud/ and COMFORTABLE with themselves….

And that is JUST As true with STRAIGHT people….

Im 40 and Straight…. And deal with the Random Public on a daily basis….but I still look at girls an go ‘mmmmm DAMN!!!!!’ and then get creeped out when I realize that I am LITERALLY old enough to be their father…..

In MY experience, Gay Guys have the same kinda response… So do Lesbians…(although you conservatives dont SEEM to worry about Lesbians and F2M Trans people in the SAME way you worry about your ‘precious’ daughters)

So, to sum up….
Yes there IS a greater acceptance of Early/middle adulthood May/September relationships within the Gay/Lesbian community. And YES there is more acceptance of youthful sexual interaction…(to which I would point you to the MANY comments on this topic that mention shotgun weddings and 14yr old girls getting married so the “baby has a name”…proof that even STRAIGHT people have sex outside of wedlock(even supposedly good CHRISTIAN People

This is what so hillarious about the whole “sexual revolution is a one way street ratchet destroying all norms” so many people are propagating. In our lifetime, taboos towards sex with adolescents and children became immeasurably stronger than they ever were: as matter of law (rising ages of consent) and practice (victims are not encouraged to shut up and go on with their lives anymore). And this is even without mentioning the invention of spousal rape as a legal concept..

The increase in the age-of-consent didn’t happen with the Sexual Revolution, it happened through the Social Purity movement in the 19th century, which fought to change the laws. Today, these people (who also fought against abortion, contraception), would be considered the model of Victorian prudes.

So, you’re pointing to a few places which still in the 1950s hadn’t updated their laws and brought their laws up to date — to a standard created by Victorian prudes — and crediting the Sexual Revolution.

But yes, I do think a consequence of the Sexual Revolution so far has been increased consensus about age-of-consent, but not because of any noble reasons. People fighting for sexual liberation simply couldn’t defend their ideas politically if they didn’t support this consensus. Its led to a rather draconian environment where sex offenders are treated like lepers, and we can’t even show sympathy to people who say they’re pedophiles but don’t act on their attractions.

However, there are still some on the left who have seized on this and argue the Victorian standard to be done away with, saying age-of-consent should be lowered to 13 or 14.

“Sex with post-pubescent teenagers may not be “pedophilia” but a 30 year old who seduces a 15 year old (whether girl or boy) into bed has done done something notably more wicked than if s/he had seduced someone of the same age. The age of majority may be a bit arbitrary, but the reason we make such a distinction is not arbitrary.”

What if the 15 year old is the seducer (as Milo says he was)? Youths (perhaps especially sans moral guidance) do all sorts of things for fun and laughs – and to horrify the silly oldies and ways.

Yes. CPAC has become a giant screw-up, thanks to libertarianism. Disinviting Ann Coulter a few years ago was a warning bell in the night. Members of the Trump administration should stay the hell away from CPAC.

[Lee Podles says:
February 20, 2017 at 11:29 am
A small and declining minority of priests who molested children went after pre-pubescent children. Almost all abusive priests molested pubescent boys, that is, were pederasts.]

About 80% of victims of abusive priests have been male. From what I read, the primary reason for this is that it is much easier for a priest to spend time with a young boy rather than a girl and not that the priest actually preferred boys.